Videos
(112)Screenshots
(62)Cheats and Walkthroughs
(144)
Videos
(110)Screenshots
(62)Cheats and Walkthroughs
(138)
Videos
(56)Screenshots
(34)Cheats and Walkthroughs
(5)
Videos
(110)Screenshots
(62)Cheats and Walkthroughs
Videos
(39)Screenshots
Cheats and Walkthroughs
According to a recent article in Foreign Policy magazine, the U.S. Government may begin searching through Xbox 360, PS3 and Wii consoles in search of criminals and nere-do-wells of various stripes.
The governmental types believe that easy access to your console hard-drive will allow the authorities to catch pedophiles and terrorists who use their consoles to engage in illegal activities. Privacy advocates, on the other hand, are concerned with law enforcement over-reaching and breaching privacy.
Obscure Technologies, a San Francisco-based company that performs computer forensics, has already earned a $172,250 research contract to develop ''hardware and software tools that can be used for extracting data from video-game systems'', and ''a collection of data (disk images; flash memory dumps; configuration settings) extracted from new video-game systems and used game systems purchased on the secondary market'."
Right now, the project is exploratory, so "They" are probably not tapping your gamertag yet. As Obscure Technologies president Greg May says. ''It will be interesting to see, because it's new to us as well. A lot of this stuff hasn't been done. We're not sure how complicated it is.''
A fascinating wrinkle in the story: Unlike your PC, console makers have already built in pretty good encryption to prevent piracy, so (the speculation goes) in order for the FBI and others to check out the inside of your machine, the console makers would have to agree, and help out. The question: Would they do it?
Also: It's pretty easy to install spyware monitoring apps on your PC too, where you can't just do that for your console, so you're more at the mercy of the decisions of the console makers.
Another question: Does it even make sense? It makes sense that pedophiles would use games to try to talk to kids, but I'm not so sure about terrorists. It's relatively easy to encrypt communications on PC, but with a console, it would, seemingly, be much harder. Although, as far as establishing connections between criminals, it might be useful to see who you've played games with, and it might make sense to establish a timeline, too. Still, I can't help but think any potential snoopers who looked into my Xbox would only learn that I'm terrible at Call of Duty: Black Ops.
Source: The Age
All of the best people are following Stephen Johnson's twitter feed. Also, email me if you wanna.
Comments are Closed
Comments
Displaying 1–20 of 24
122
papercut2211
wow, that a little extreme. monitor game consoles to stop criminals and terrorist? why not just monitor pedophiles? I have done nothing wrong, so why should my rights be infringe because of them?
geomancer21
Then I say, since I have nothing to hide, since I have done nothing wrong, then i have every right to do everything in my power to prevent them from looking into my system. Firewalls, proxy servers, trojan viruses, system mods, whatever it takes. Hey i have nothing to hide, so they have no business snooping around my stuff.
S4NE
this is just another way for the government to watch its citizens and keep track of everything whether you have something to hide or not. everyday more and more freedoms are taken away and we become one step closer to being a communist country/ police nation.
KaiSupa
I think it should first be noted that most gamers will not be effected by this. Unless you are conducting illegal activities on your console then there is nothing to worry about. The most they'll find from your account is chat logs and location data. So don't threaten or harrass other people and everything will be fine. And they can't ruin the industry by monitoring Live or PSN. It's merely a way for the government to keep people safe. Of course some people might say this is an invasion of privacy, when most of your information (achievements, games played, rankings, username, location, player rating, ect.) is displayed on your profile page anyways and is available to anyone using the service. Essentially my point is that if your a normal person this will have little to no effect on you, or your gameplay.
EvilFefe
I have nothing to hide, If they want to monitor Xbox Live or Playstation Network I say let them.
ProSnoopy
The Government needs to stay the hell, away from Video Games
noscopeheadshot
You "I have nothing to hide" people don't quite get it. Not standing up for your rights is the reason the US government has gotten so out of control. They push the boundaries little by little because no one gives a crap. This is not about having something to hide, this is about letting the government know that things such as this and the Patriot Act and SOPA are UNCONSTITUTIONAL and ILLEGAL. We as a country have been choosing safety over freedom for far too long now. You all need to realize where this nation is heading. Do yourself a favor and read the book "1984". It's almost terrifying to see all the similarities between our world and the fictional dystopia that Orwell wrote about almost 60 years ago. We need to let these "public servants" know that we know Big Brother is watching, and we won't stand for it.
ShankNastay
why dont they focus on modders n hackers instead? isint that like a federal crime on any level not to mention that they make REAL GAMERS WITH REAL SKILL obsolete come on now
ShankNastay
they gonna do what they gonna do, just as long as they know they can suck my....well you know
BaTmAn115
who uses a console for that at least hackers idiots computers are cheaper to buy than consoles ive got nothing to hide anyway
TheUniqueFrequency
My boyfriend and I were discussing this and he explained that he has seen Microsoft work with law enforcement before. He said that his friend in Florida told him that there were kids conspiring over Xbox Live to kill another student at school. They succeeded in murdering the boy and the police got together with Microsoft to look up their chats and use them as solid evidence. Now this is one of those "he said, he read" deals, but I am certain there is definite truth to this, especially since 9/11 and then SOPA/AFTA, etc. This country is terrorist-crazy; the word strikes rage and fear in ignorant people all over the country and the government loves it cos it makes a great excuse. (Vegetables are TERROISTS and that's why we are banning them from schools [not real, just an example of the ridiculousness]).
Let's also not forget most people think just dragging things to the recycle bin and hitting "Empty Recycle Bin" actually works at deleting everything. Same goes for the Internet; once something is up on the web, it will never truly be removed (the big problem people are finally realizing with the recent surges in social networking and blogging). :| Point being, this government is growing more like a theocracy and a dictatorship every year and most of us don't care to, or simply can't, stop it.
grandshadow
Theirs way more importent things they need to be worrying about then games. They need to get their st** together.
JaShatta
They doing what they have to do but still i am not comfortable with, and no i do not have nothing to hide but i sure ain't comfortable with people snooping around my information with out my knowledge and permission
JohnathanK
The government controls enough already, they have no reason to be rummaging through our gaming community as well.
If this turns out to be true, then I guess I'll join the ranks of tin foil hat wearers everywhere.
Kabuto2012
Honestly I don't really care if they're watching over my Ps3 or Wii or anything for that matter, the only people who hate it are the ones with something to hide.
ramusxx
The Taliban will use call of duty for training. This is a matter of national security guys!!
jbpatt3n
terrorists in the Wii are so scary! i wouldn't be surprised if pedophiles were on it but terrorism is over the top. i can't even think of a handful of titles that allow online play on the Wii so it doesn't seem like a problem. the only thing we should be worried about is our credit card info being stolen on consoles, not creepy old dudes getting turned on by the high squeaky voices of little kids
chach7171
Now we know what cloud storage is really for...Look i'm all for finding every pedophile and terrorist in the u.s. and airing out their skulls with hollow points. However this will lead to the us spying on you with kinect and archiving party/private chats yadda yadda...guess i shouldn't video chat with my gf anymore if the feds can see what she's doing....
linkfan57
I really hope this goes nowhere real fast. I don't approve of the government doing this. Nuff said.
Skyhammer26
Reminds me of the Red Scare all this terrorist and criminal hunting stuff except not really as extreme yet.
Displaying 1–20 of 24
122